Thursday, December 21, 2017

Give the client more and see what develops. Now I don't know if it's a direct outcome of that practice, but there were at least (3) clients that had me on retainer this year...or so it felt. Could be because, right from the get go, k-e-p-t things completely upfront as to what it would take and how much we were willing to give back...in discounts or above & beyonds.

Also, this year on the VoIP fronts, telecommuting as a standard was introduced. Less face-to-face. Most, if not all the other
categories have been up-to-speed in that department for a good number of
years. But, this is a completely different sector. More Main Street. All's you can do is try and keep the casualty count to a minimum. Still, there are some that are clingin to that "old school" belief that it's cool Not-to-know-Nutin about computers. And interpret digitally informed tasks as too much to
be considered. There's only (5) words for that - Too Late in the Game.

I remember, back when we were doing live auditions at my agents recording booth at Abrams
Artists, spit-balling about doing auditions from our home studios. Sure, that'll be the day! There was a time when it was generally thought by some agents and talent alike, that knowing about tech stuff or for that matter too much left hemisphere activity lessened your acting cred.
Enter the Smartphone and a whole new mentality that followed.

All in all, not such a bad year...considering such changes in leadership landscapes we won't mention.
Even had some fun ala (Reagan takes a Knee) with our Celeb-Death (The Donald) taking the helm as president this year. Hoping your year was a good ONE... and here's to another that has everyone & everything you need. Happy New Year!

Axial finished up it's 2 year run cycle this September on CBS Sports Network. The company has switched from vo based branded imaging to sound-effect/special effect brand imaging. Costs being cited as an issue, I've been replaced by a slight K-Boom & muffled earthquake shake. Kinda cool actually. Here's the latest spot that's very much still online at:Axial Trophy Truck Score International Spot.

We continued local, regional and international spots. There was (NOLA) & (Salem, New Hampshire) for the Haunt industry. This year marked a national breakout for The Mortuary featured prominently on CBS's NCIS late October for their Halloween 'Dead Man Calling' episode. OmniTrans, Metro Bus Service in San Bernardino Valley, Ca. updated their "slowest man" radio spot based on the Bill Lyman PBS docu-character theme. And voicing with a movie trailer'esque style, Lebanon's nationally themed TV campaign - entitled: "We Dream Lebanon" via Plan-A Advertising.

Reached into the MTV Celebrity DeathMatch vault to unearth an episode I voiced of Rodney Dangerfield as he was pitted against Don Rickles. Don passed away earlier this year and Mr. Warmth's presence is still very much felt with tons of SEO dividends. The last scene had pieces of Don Rickles on a BBQ spit to signify he was thoroughly roasted. You'll find a link to fan clubs and episode info at the above link.

The folks at: Futurama came-a-callin with a read for their Game-of-Drones mobile game app teaser trailers. Some last minute casting to the tunes of Benders voice variations. The show's been off the air for a few years, but has good enough recall for a roll-out of promo teasers to spark some interest in the mobile markets. Bender's tuned to a bit of extreme type-A multiple personalities that we were sparking on all fours...'hyper-cylinders' that is.

There was also some buzz this year from the folks over at the Travel Channel to have George (The Human Fly) Willig appear on their Mysteries-at-the-Museum show.
More on that as it becomes available.

Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Stefan Nadelman, is a name that appears with some frequency around this BLOG.Our journey began some time ago while voicing his award winning documentary of a New York City icon of the times and subsequent follow up Doc. Terminal Bar 'Two' link

And very happy he continues with his present day-job as credited movie titling animator...and then some with Cobain and now with Nat Geo's - Jane, hitting the theatres. 'Jane' Trailer animationStefan handles both the titling and animated sequence scenes with his gritty unvarnished flashes of pop art story-telling. He can bring normally overlooked objects and personal archive writings to dance alive with a fresh conveyance. Almost in a new medium type of way. Throw some Phillip Glass down as your musical sound trax and damn... you're traveling back through time...or at least it feels like it and it's always cool lookin. Nat Geo (Jane-the-Movie) websiteBut, Stefan doesn't stop there. He just emailed - that he's almost done wrapping on the Garry Shandling documentary he's animating. Being directed by Judd Apatow, Stefan will concentrate on the journals & notebooks of Garry's for animating scenes and titles. He said, between Cobain, Jane & now Garry, that makes three lives he's gotten to know intimately. Stefan went on to mention he read an article that the HBO series - The Deuce (a nod to 42nd Street) had its key visual reference based on photos from this notorious dive across from the Port Authority back in the 70's & 80's...called The Terminal Bar 'One'!
Here's the link to the article in the LA Times:http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-ca-st-fall-preview-the-deuce-20170908-story.html

Friday, October 20, 2017

The Mortuary has been home to some very scary voices over the past decade and are now getting their due as one of the best haunts in the industry by being featured in the CBS series NCIS (NOLA) this week. Hope I played some small part to that end.

Featured as an integral part of the show's plotline, The Mortuary's creepy insides are revealed in great detail and offers the perfect venue for mystery & mayhem. Not a bad little piece of exposure for both of us.

Take a look at the full CBS NCIS episode called "Dead Man Calling" featuring the Mortuary Haunted Mansion at: CBS NCIS Link

Thursday, September 28, 2017

Never one to be political...but, with all the heated polarization over football players kneeling during the national anthem and President Trump's jumping on the chance to set things patriotically straight with a flurry of over 30 tweets... it seemed like a reasonable time to interject a bit.

After all, Trump was calling out football players - namely over the progenitor kneeler: Colin Kaepernick. All while Puerto Rican's, were currently reeling from the devastation left behind by hurricane Maria and there wasn't a word (tweeted or otherwise) about it from the Commander & Chief.

Enter, Ron (tear down that wall) Reagan with a Quick Cuts video to help provide a sense of humor and make some sense outta today's fray of bazaar weirdness.

It's the story behind that iconoclastic protest photo of the 1968 Olympics (and perhaps one more insight into Olympic practices). Peter Norman, the Australian who finished and stood second in the Olympic periodic line, was responsible for Carlos & Smith sporting the "Black Hand" salute at ceremony time. He also stood strong with his convictions to shine a light on Australia's warped morality towards their indigenous natives. The above link is to a fascinating story that's wonderful, heart wrenching and Tinseltown should do its darnedest to promote...in full epic proportion.
After all, it'll be 50 years next year that it took place. You'd think it was about time.

Sunday, August 27, 2017

The time has come to show off Lebanon's creative side with the story of the whole nation's dream...and the launch of their "We Dream Lebanon" multi-media campaign. Complete with:

300 LIVE PERFORMERS
23 TONS OF LIGHTING
120 METERS OF 3D MAPPING PROJECTION
2 MILLION LITTERS OF WATER
8.5 TONS OF FIREWORKS
8 MONTHS IN THE MAKING

Plan-A Advertising in Beirut, Lebanon in association with Beirut Events put together the creative imaging for the promo with an August 24th opening. Back in May they reached out to me with a request for a movie-trailer type of read to go along with a sound track that would build from slow drama to a high energy pace. Wound up doing a couple of versions.

Thursday, July 27, 2017

Don't quite know the exact attraction of the Bellerose/Floral Park area, but these days, as has been in the recent past, they're happenin towns for the likes of Tinsel-Town.

They filmed a pilot for USA Network's in Bellerose called "Falling Water" and The Good Wife in Floral Park in 2016. And again in Bellerose with Person of Interest, the year before. A while back, they shot a sequence for Sex in the City in a Bellerose ice cream stand that was a tradition for 50 years.

Netflix chose Floral Park this week for location filming of - "The Week Of ", co-directed and starring Adam Sandler. This film is part of the four-movie deal Sandler has with Netflix, which has resulted in the movies "The Ridiculous 6," "The Do-Over" and "Sandy Wexle."

Set to be released in 2018, it also features - Chris Rock with Steve Buscemi. The movie is about the parents of an engaged couple who are in the final week of preparations for the wedding. In the movie, Sandler's daughter is set to marry Chris Rock's son. Also, coming on board is, Patricia Belcher and SNL alum Rachel Dratch, playing Sandler's wife.

The picture on the right is of Steve, Chris and Adam at a restaurant in Floral Park that's an Italian constitution.

Nextflix says the movie will be filming at various locations on Long Island this summer. Already, the town of Glen Cove has been the setting for previous scenes.

Sandler is directing alongside Saturday Night Live writer Robert Smigel who co-wrote the script with Sandler. The feature is being produced by Happy Madison Productions.

Shortly after this feature was posted, there was another announcement in Bellerose that filming SyFy's "Happy" will begn on August 9th, 2017 on Commonwealth Blvd. "Happy" is about an intoxicated, corrupt ex-cop turned hit man – who is adrift in a world of casual murder, soulless sex, and betrayal. After a hit gone wrong, his inebriated life is forever changed by a tiny, relentlessly positive, imaginary blue winged horse named “Happy.” It was announced that Patton Oswalt will replace Bobby Moynihan as Happy the Horse. On the right is a Christmas scene being shot on 89th Avenue, Bellerose, Queens.It wasn't noted why the show's producers decided to replace Moynihan following his appearance as Happy in the show's pilot, but it may be related to Moynihan's leading role in the upcoming CBS show Me, Myself and I. Joseph Reitman has been cast as the villain. The villain is described as “crazy and delusional.”

Happy! will premiere in 2018. There isn't a solid airdate as of yet! Here's a review of the 1st couple of episodes from: Variety Dec 6th, 2017.Here's a little tid-bit of cool...The bathrooms were in a 16 wheeler, as were the casts dressing rooms. The bathroom doors were labled "Lucy & Desi" because they were the actual bathrooms used (reconditioned) when the duo was on location.

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

RDS an On-Hold & VoIP client, just re-did their print, website and telephony with the roll-out of their new business name. To butress those areas we turned to Quick Cut videos lik the one below. Simple video productions, sometimes no more than a fleshed out Poster Ad. Combine a graphic, graphics or video snippet with a voice-over and music mix ...or the same mix as the On-Hold program. Keeps everything contiguous. Videos are uploaded to the clients Utube channel and tagged with sugical acuity for maximum SEO benefit. The links are shared throughout social media sites and the synergy takes off...or so they say.

After all - Utube and Blogger are all part of the Google Family and...Hey, once it's in da Family, well, ya's gotta keeps it in da Family.
Might want to go so far as to make your video links using the URL shortener code page Google provides at: https://goo.gl/. It also generates an all important QR (Quick Response) code generator and scan cube graphic. Plus, your account page keeps track of all the dates of your shorteners. AND, it'll show you the amount of clicks that were made under each shortened code.

It's all because you made a video. Once you name it, describe it and tag it, it has another life altogether of its own. It helps if the content ain't crud either! Click on the one below to see our attempt at company name reinforcing and directing viewers with an informative grass roots delivery.

Friday, May 26, 2017

Well, here's another 'how is it possbile' that the years have passed so fast since a milestone, anniversary or blessed event. Moving towards Geezer-hood, it's becoming all too familiar. And in the case of really tall buildings being scaled, as of this year, it'll be 40 years since George Willig scaled the south tower of the World Trade Center 'Twin Towers' on May 26th, 1977.

At 6:29 AM that day, George started up the northeast corner of the south tower. Three and a half hours later, after signing a few autographs for ascending policemen in a window-washing gondola he had reached the top. As he gestured and waved towards the crowds below, George was arrested by Port Authority police. George was initially slapped with a $250,000.00 fine...later reduced to $1.10. One penny for every story he climbed.

He had been planning the climb for more than a year, and had designed and manufactured unique window washing channel clamping devices that operated much like brake shoes. He also devised a special harness that would allow all four limbs to work independently to step into, release and hoist his way up the south tower.George, at the time of the climb, had just moved to an apartment in Queens, where he later asked me to take it over when he moved to California. I had done an interview with George shortly after the climb and found we had some common interests and we became friends. With a little experience at talent agenting, I started getting George some TV appearances on Letterman...the ABC Network SuperStar Show.

As the years passed, my friend Bob Brown, the AD on the interview and I put together a timeline video containing still shots against the interviews audio track. WTC UnClimbable is the result. We ran it on the 35th year anniversary on Youtube. This year, we slapped on '40 Year Anniversary' of George's climbing inventiveness and balls-of-steel that gripped NY and the rest of the World for (3 1/2) hours of heroic history.

George paid a visit to TC & Company's studio September 11, 2014. That's more literal..as he picked up the lunch tab over at Trattoria Lucia. We caught up on old & new times. Showed him his platform bed we've kept in our garage rafters if he wanted to make use of it again. George is seen here against a video inset of himself in 1977 on Top-of-the-World, while visiting from California.

Saturday, May 6, 2017

It was a pleasure to be cast as the international spokesperson for this years tribute to Lebanon, entitled; We Dream Lebanon. Billed as the Biggest Multimedia Show ever produced in Lebanon. Done a lot of these biggest and bestest promos, but this is by far gonna be the Mother-of-all-Shindigs!

We're T-a-l-k-i-n...8 MONTHS IN THE MAKING

300 LIVE PERFORMERS

23 TONS OF LIGHTING

120 METERS OF 3D MAPPING PROJECTION

2 MILLION LITTERS OF WATER

8.5 TONS OF FIREWORKS

My friends over at Plan-A Advertising in Beirut, Lebanon in association with Beirut Events put together the creative imaging for the promo with an August opening. They wanted a movie trailer type of read to go along with a sound track that would build from slow drama to a high energy pace.

As usual, we did the voice recoding as a Skype session 5,600 miles apart - giving direction, doing playback of the voice & music tracks with all the clarity of being next door. Of course, with that many miles between us, so was the time difference of being seven hours ahead from New York. Always willing to work within the windows of normalcy...even if it seems a tad abi-normal at 5:00 AM! Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Sunday, April 9, 2017

MTV's Celebrity DeathMatch series was a staple for wild & wacky fun between 1998 to 2007.It was a late night venture that featured a novel animated approch with it's 'Claymation' animated figures. In a mock-like Madison Square Garden boxing ring arena, filled with blood thirsty spectators, they'd pit celebrities duking it out (to-the-death) with two play-by-play claymation announcers... AND a recurring claymation referee complete with the actual voice of Mills Lane (the famous World-Boxing referee). Here's the IMDb link to the series page:IMDb Celebrity DeathMatch Page

Between two agents, I was racking up some nice credits on the show voicing the likes of Charlton Heston, Nick Nolte, Chris Tucker, Sammo Hong, Teddy Roosevelt, Emeril Lagasse and Rodney Dangerfield who was pitted against a feisty Don Rickles! Sorry-to-say that Rodney got the drop on Rickles after he exhausted himself with a tirade of one liners!

I was a big fan of Mr Rickles for many years. When I turned the script to the last few pages to find out that I (Rodney) won the match, I was genuinely bummed. But, Rodney was still pissed about Don running out on the check at a Friar's Club luncheon some years back. The last scene had pieces of Don Rickles on a BBQ spit to signify he was thoroughly roasted...a bit overdone for the man also know as - Mr. Warmth!

Here are some links to various websites and Google Search that have fan clubs and episode info on Celebrity DeathMatch:

Friday, February 3, 2017

Had a nice surprise during the week with a telephone call from 'Casting' over at Futurama.

They gave me a shot at layin down some lines of BENDER for their mobile app. Talk about being on-call all the time...and being able to produce.

Well, it was quite a bit after hours when the call came on Wed. You know, the middle of the week and all. Mighta had a therapeutical cocktail or two in line with Mid-Week 'Bender-ing'. So, I was primed and ready-to-go in character, as it were.

I was included with some mighty fine actors and the pay-off was generous. The call was for 'Dead-On' and due ASAP. Files went back & forth. A request for another batch was recorded. Even threw in a safety. We'll have to let the files speak for themselves and see what develops. Film at 11:00.

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

With the SEO garnered from IMDb's social presence these days, their site is reason enough to treat membership with the respect it deserves. With a 30% discount to members of SAG/AFTRA, there's no better time to put together a Credits List on IMDb. Am looking forward to posting some Family Guy credits soon to follow.

I've always been a hoarder of stuff, especially when it came to "the work".
It's a new year and it's high-time to put the 'work' in some sort of order. Man, and it's a job!
I mean, yes I have the stuff needed...but, to be able to put my hands on it and have it act as an archive document...Geez, I wasn't so sure. Half the battle is finding the doc's and then trying to make sense of it to be used as proof. Sometimes, it's not just a matter of having a copy of the script or even a video copy of a show with actor credits at the end. Actual script numbers and air dates are essentials. So, I had to dig in certain instances. Also, IMDb's 'help' section can be a bit of a learning curve. But, there are people on the other side of an 'auto response' email where I received one-on-one assistance.

So, between getting work and finding the 'work', I have finally gotten my soap opera credits (almost all) listed on that section of IMDb. I had played many characters that you don't see, just hear on the ABC DayTime show "Loving" in the 1990's. And had a recurring role as:

'Sturgeon'the doorman (heard, not seen). Did about 20 episodes...including, Motel operator, Jack's voice, taxi dispatcher, car radio announcer and grunting as King Kong! BTW, this was the only comic relief character on DayTime soap opera-dum at the time! IMDb only listed "Jack's voice" so far, but the links there to get the complete list.

When I can get my head above water from my incessant (he he) work-load, will take a stab at getting the credits for NBC Sunday Today's (Political Cartoons) posted. They include
imitation voicing to the likes of: Oliphant, Peters, Zepp, Wright, Marlette, Auth and Gahan Wilson to name a few.

Then, it's on to getting the -
MTV's Celebrity Death Matches
listed. Here's 'The Donald' I did
against Don King.